Colorado Avalanche’s Daniel Briere, right, uses his glove to knock in the puck over Calgary Flames’ goalie Karri Ramo, left, from Finland, as Calgary’s Brandon Bollig looks on during the second period of an NHL hockey game, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2014 in Calgary, Alberta. The goal was not allowed. (Larry MacDougal, The Canadian Press)

CALGARY, Alberta — The Flames and Avalanche meet Thursday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome in game between two teams going in opposite directions. Calgary is 16-8-2, much better than the 9-13-2 it was at this point last season. Colorado is 9-11-5, much worse than its 19-6 start a year ago.

The Avs are on a two-game trip, concluding a back-to-back on Friday at Winnipeg. We’ll have much more from the morning skate at the Saddledome, but for now, here’s what you might want to know:

NEW YORK – I’ll get quick and to the point with this blog:
My thoughts on Alex Tanguay (and Corey Sarich) coming to the Avs tonight from Calgary for David Jones and Shane O’Brien:

– I like the deal. I think it makes sense on a couple of levels, the first being that old friend Tanguay can still play a little. I mean, he’s put up 145 points in his last 183 NHL games. Think the Avs could have used a guy with similar production in those last three years?

– Yeah, it seems like Tanguay has been around forever, but he’s still just 33. He says he feels very healthy and takes care of his body a lot better than his younger days.

– He should help the power play, with his passing from the half-boards. He’s very dangerous in the shootout, where points are valuable (his 10 SO goals led the league in 2010-11) and he still scores a lot when he shoots (18.8 percent career). But of course, we all know he doesn’t shoot a lot.

– He was an 18-year-old hotshot kid from the Halifax Mooseheads in 1998 just drafted by the Avs, and now the Avs could take another kid from Halifax Sunday. He should have some good advice for that kid.

The latest “Hockey Talk” podcast is up, with a snazzy new intro that I did myself. What does my voice sound like in echo mode, in a most cheesy manner? Click on the button to find out.
My guests for this session are Ryan Boulding from Hockey on the Rocks and Avs expert/fan Dario Ronzone.

Topic include: what kind of coach will Patrick Roy be like, what will his working relationship with Joe Sakic really be like, who should the Avs take with the No. 1 draft pick (or should they trade it), should Paul Stastny be traded, should the contract of David Jones be bought out and much, much more.

Personally, I don’t like how the Avs fired Joe Sacco today. This is a blog, so I can be a little looser with my opinions/observations, and so I think what the Avs did today was tacky and, well, a little bit gutless.

The team announces his firing on Twitter at about 11:15 a.m. on a Sunday. Then a few minutes later, at 11:33, the club releases a three-paragraph email blast to the media saying Sacco had been “relieved of his duties.”

No further explanation by anyone in the organization. No press conference. No further comment by anyone.

But that in essence is the Avalanche when it comes to bad news. Don’t acknowledge it too much and keep it brief, and keep it in the past. Move forward.

That’s the way it is, and that’s OK I guess. It’s just sports. I’m not here to weep for Joe Sacco. He had a good chance here — four years, and finished no better than eighth in the Western Conference in any one of them. Win or else. That’s the law of the sports jungle.

Still, I’ve always been personally sad at coach firings. I’ve seen how damn hard they work, and there hasn’t been a single Avs coach since I started covering the team in 1995 who didn’t live and die with every game.

DETROIT — Right winger Milan Hejduk is not on the Avalanche’s two-game trip after suffering a shoulder injury in Saturday’s 1-0 overtime victory over Nashville in Denver, thus he is not expected to play Monday at Detroit or Tuesday at Nashville.

Right wing David Jones, who has missed the past three games with a knee injury, is on the trip and might play Monday. If he’s not ready to go, the club will call up a forward from Lake Erie of the American Hockey League.

Center Paul Stastny (foot) and defenseman Ryan Wilson (ankle, on injured reserve) also are not on the trip and remain out indefinitely.

Semyon Varlamov, who was sensational Saturday against the Predators, is scheduled to start Monday against the Red Wings, who lost 7-1 at home to the Chicago Blackhawks on Easter Sunday.

A Florida loss tonight kept the Avalanche at 29th overall in the NHL, two points ahead with two games in hand. Times are desperate indeed for the Avs. If they are really going to fall apart again in the second half of a season, the least they can get out of the deal is the No. 1 pick in the draft and the chance to take Seth Jones.

A big, mobile, two-way defenseman? That certainly sounds good right now. Of course, even if the Avs finish 30th, their chance of the first pick is just 25 percent. The 29th-place team will have an 18.8 percent chance.

But about tonight: it’s as bad as it ever was around the Avs dressing room. There is that feeling of absolute hopelessness again around the team, where just a good shift or two is cause for a moral victory. The confidence of this team is absolutely gone, and I’ll be darned if I can figure out where it went.

This team crushed the Blackhawks a little more than two weeks ago. They totally outskated that very good team, then beat San Jose the next game to get back to .500. Up next was a home game with the Oilers. Win that game against a struggling team finishing up a nine-game road trip, and things are starting to look pretty good, right? Since that 4-0 loss to the Oilers, the only thing separating this team from a seven-game losing streak was a fairly lucky 4-3 win over Dallas at home, a game in which the Stars led 2-0 and missed a couple of bunnies after that which would have put the game away for sure.

Right now, I sense the exact same hopeless feeling around the Avs that characterized the second half of the 2008-09 and 2010-11 seasons. Tony Granato coached that first team, Joe Sacco the second.
The criticism of Sacco is just withering right now from most of you, or at least it seems that way. I see the #firesacco hashtags and my inbox is just inundated with “When are they going to fire Sacco?” subject-line emails. GM Greg Sherman is getting just as much heat, or close anyway.

What can I say? It’s an absolute mess again, and people want somebody’s head on a platter. Will they get it? Right now, it’s just unclear what will happen. Players are saying it’s not Sacco’s fault, but of course that’s what they are going to say. But J.S. Giguere tonight was adamant that it’s not a coaching problem with this team right now. I’ll have more on that in the paper Tuesday, but he said the team’s “system” is a good one and the same one that the team had some success with last year. Giguere, as we saw in Sunday’s paper, isn’t afraid to speak his mind, so I take what he says to heart. He’s been in the league since 1997 and is a straight shooter.

Nonetheless, I get it: if the Avs just keep free-falling and they bring Sacco back for a FIFTH year next season – well I will be honest and say I’d be surprised by that. I don’t see how the Avs can sell that to anyone, least of all their most die-hard fans. I would say that the Avs will need to have a real good final month if they are to save Sacco’s job. Yet, that’s just my opinion at the moment. Maybe the Kroenkes, Pierre Lacroix and Sherman will feel different. They’re not saying anything to me or anyone else in the media right now. It’s a bad, bad situation with this team.

Again.

– – – – – – –
About the blown call tonight that cost the Avs 49 seconds of power-play time: sorry, I can’t get out my violin for a team that didn’t even get an official shot on goal in that 5-on-3. P.A. Parenteau’s goal was essentially kicked into their own net by the Canucks. The power play was bad all night, as the many boos from you on hand made clear.
Yet, the call was blown. There was one second left on the first penalty of the Canucks, and the Avs should have gotten the second power play, for 49 seconds. But that wasn’t why the Avs lost the game – and at least Sacco and an irate Eric Lacroix admitted that afterward. Lacroix was pretty ticked after the game, going into the off-ice officials room to do a little yelling. Good times.

– – – – – – – –
Here come the injuries again. It always seems to happen when the Avs lose like this: guys just start going down. Paul Stastny and Ryan Wilson are on the shelf now. Stastny blocked a shot with his left foot, on a slapper by Jason Garrison. Avs said he’d come back to the game originally, but he never did. I don’t think it’s broken, but we won’t know for sure ’til tomorrow.
Wilson mangled his ankle again in the second period. He could be done for the year this time. We’ll see. But he keeps re-injuring it.

SAN JOSE, CALIF. – Greetings from 65-and-sunny San Jose. Sorry, couldn’t resist. But I’ll be back freezing with the rest of you back home tomorrow.
No Matt Duchene tonight. Groin, right leg. Another tough blow. They just never stop, do they?

Avs are going to need a big game from guys like Gabe Landeskog, Paul Stastny, David Jones and P.A. Parenteau tonight. Landy, Stastny and Jones didn’t do much Sunday in Anaheim, so they’ll really need to step it up tonight without Duchene.

Duchene had no points in his previous three games, by the way, and I wonder if he wasn’t bothered some by a leg problem then. He didn’t seem quite as quick as normal in Southern California over the weekend, and don’t forget he was bothered some previously by a charley horse. Hopefully, he’s not out long.

Here’s some video of Landeskog talking about his return to the place he was injured a month ago.

Here’s some footage of the boys on the ice this morning at the HP Pavilion too.

Here’s a brand new commercial put out by the Avalanche, featuring their new $4 million per-year winger David Jones, advertising 14-game ticket packages for the coming season. These 14-game ticket packages include the Oct. 11 home opener against St. Louis “for free.” But of course, we all know that game almost certainly will not be played because of the coming NHL lockout.
Both of these 14-game plans include at least five games before Dec. 1. My bet is we won’t have any NHL hockey played by then.
Is this kind of disgraceful that the Avs are selling tickets right now for games that have a high probability that won’t be played? I’ll leave that opinion to others. But here’s your ad, featuring a sleek-looking Jones:

After reading the results of a poll taken by our friends over at Mile High Hockey, it seems there is a sizable segment of the Avalanche fan base that wouldn’t mind seeing Paul Stastny traded for a player like Bobby Ryan of Anaheim.

Fact is, Ryan has made it very clear he’s not happy in Anaheim anymore. He’s a left winger, and the Avs need a left winger to fill a hole vacated by Peter Mueller. P.A. Parenteau, the more I’ve talked to him and others, is a right wing who isn’t going to feel all that comfortable if asked to play on the left side. He’d do it I’m sure, but he’s just much more comfortable on the right side.

I still don’t think Stastny will be traded yet, though. I could be proven wrong on that, but if the Avs were offering him around for a player like Ryan, I bet Anaheim would have already made that deal by now. To me, Anaheim would be foolish not to take Stastny if offered for Ryan. They need a center quite badly, and they can afford his $6.6 million cap hit. To pass up a player of his caliber for an unhappy Ryan would be just plain stupid.

My sense is that teams call the Avs and inquire about Stastny from time to time, but that the Avs are highly reluctant to move him. As much as he has frustrated fans with his up-and-down play the last couple of years, the fact remains: he’s still only 26, he’s scored 20 or more goals in three straight seasons and five of the six in his career. The only season he didn’t, 2007-08, he missed 37 games with injuries. He has 374 points in 427 career games.

Still, the flipside is: the Avs have two good young centers already in Matt Duchene and Ryan O’Reilly. If Stastny stays, one of them is going to have to be a third-line center. Or, Duchene would have to play left wing perhaps if the Avs don’t bring in someone new still.

Duchene is better as a center. He wants to play center, and that is the spot that would best benefit him and the team. If Stastny were moved, it would cement Duchene-O’Reilly as the top-two centers, and assuming the Avs get a quality left winger in a package involving Stastny, you’d have a potentially dynamic top two lines that could look like this:
Landeskog-O’Reilly-Downie
Ryan?-Duchene-Parenteau

Not to mention another line, call it whatever you’d like of
McGinn-Mitchell/Hishon?/Olver?-Jones

Stastny disappointed me and other Avs watchers with his play down the stretch, when the playoffs were still a possibility. Remember that minus-4, pointless effort in a 5-1 loss at San Jose March 26? The winner of that game would stand a great chance of making it into the top 8, and San Jose won it. Stastny was a no-show. The Avs lost six of their last seven crucial games, and Stastny posted two goals, two assists and a minus-6.

He has yet to prove he’s a big-game player. In 15 career playoff games with Colorado, he has three goals and five assists. In fact, the Avs have missed the playoffs four of the six years of his career.
After a 79-point season in 2009-10, his point totals have regressed to 57 and 53.

But all in all, he’s still a guy who gives you some points, more than the average player. You certainly can’t just lightly consider moving a player like him. Only a proven commodity would be acceptable in coming the other way. A Bobby Ryan would be such a player, and so would left winger Rick Nash. The Blue Jackets want the moon for the guy, so it would probably have to Stastny and more going to Columbus for that to happen. But if you’re Columbus and your leverage is shrinking by the day for him, can you turn up your nose at a Stastny and, say, Stefan Elliott/Tyson Barrie plus a pick deal?

Anyway, we’ve argued the merits of Stastny here before, and so let’s do it again. Is it time to move Stastny for help at left wing?

As we said here earlier, chatter had picked up regarding talks between David Jones and the Avalanche. The Avs, it leaked out, were interested in bringing him back — despite his pending unrestricted free agent status. Today, that interest manifested itself in a new four-year, $16 million contract for Jones with the Avalanche.

Did the Avs overpay to keep a guy who scored 37 points last season and wasn’t always among top six forwards? Probably, they did a bit, yes. But that’s always what happens when you sign your potential UFA guys. You have to pay a premium to keep them off the open market, because the same thing happens time and time again in the NHL: general managers of teams desperate to look like they are proactive, who want to project an air of “we’re going for it!”, they always overpay for free agents.

Guaranteed, some GMs out there would have taken a look at Jones’ bio of “he’s only 27, he’s scored 20 or more goals the last two years, he’s just coming into his own!” and thrown as big or bigger a contract at Jones this summer had he been available. Then, these same GMs often regret these kinds of deals later on and try to offload such burdensome contracts. But they absolutely cannot resist the lure of such signings when July 1 hits, and other teams are making moves and looking proactive. They get bit by the free-agent frenzy bug and throw money around like sailors on leave.
That’s why a guy like Jones would have been snapped up in a heartbeat by some team. And then the Avs would have lost a guy who is 27, who has scored 20 or more goals the last two years, for nothing. And in my mind, you never lose a guy in the prime of his career for nothing. You either re-sign him or trade him, but you don’t lose him for nothing.

We all know some of Jones’ limitations, having seen him play regularly here. He’s not the most physical guy at all. He’s not a true power forward, despite good size. He can fall into long scoring droughts just like any other player.

But he’s scored 20 or more goals the last two years. Those guys don’t grow on trees anymore in the NHL. He’s got a good, accurate shot. He’s a smart player for the most part. He’s scored 20 or more goals the last two years.

I would say this: Jones needs to stay on a line with Paul Stastny. Joe Sacco can’t make the mistake of jerking him around to different lines anymore. I mean, if neither guy gets a point in 15 straight games together, that’s one thing. But no more moving Jones onto the third line if he goes two games without a goal. Sacco needs to be more consistent with his lines I believe. Players have grumbled at having too many different linemates.

Players always are grumbling about something with the coach, so most of it goes in one ear and out the other with me now – much more than the early days of my covering this team, when I would think any grumble was worth a Watergate investigation. You learn after a while that carping about the coach is just part of the business.

But in this sense, I think they have a point. Players need more consistency of what to expect from the coach. Sacco needs to understand that.

Anyway, I’ll have some thoughts from Jones himself later in the day, or in the print paper tomorrow.

It was unclear before, but no longer: the Avalanche is interested in re-signing David Jones.
Jones’ agent, Ross Gurney, said preliminary discussions on a new contract have taken place, and that the Avalanche has indicated it wants Jones back.

Does this mean he’s coming back with the Avs? Of course not. Maybe the sides won’t agree on the numbers. The lure of the open market is always strong.
But for the Avs to express interest in one of their own potential unrestricted free agents is significant. Very often, they’ve simply let their UFAs go without so much as a word.

The Avs are starting to ramp up talks with several unsigned players, including, my NHL sources say, with at least a couple of the team’s potential unrestricted free agents.
Those potential UFAs are: David Jones, Jay McClement, Cody McLeod, Shane O’Brien and Matt Hunwick.
I can not say with 100-percent certainly who is NOT being negotiated with at all. So, I’m not going to say either way right now who I think they are, but I do know the Avs are talking with them and other unsigned possible RFAs already, which is a good sign for them. The Avs can sometimes wait to the last minute to do these kinds of things, which not always desirable results (Matt Hendricks, Ian Laperriere, etc.). They often do not talk to anybody who goes the UFA route.

Interestingly, one player the Avs have yet to start talking turkey on a new contract yet with is Ryan O’Reilly. My sources say there has yet to be contact between them and his agent, Mark Guy. But I wouldn’t worry about it. He’ll be signed at some point. He’s not going anywhere.

Of the UFAs, I think the Avs are definitely interested in bringing McClement back, along with O’Brien. Jones? Unclear still what’s going on there. I think the Avs want to talk and see what it would take, but I make no hard and fast predictions on him coming back right now.

Thirty-seven points in 72 games doesn’t look very good on paper. But 20 goals does. For Jones, it was his managing to get to the 20-goal mark for a second straight season that should get him a nice contract by July 1, the day he’ll be eligible to be an unrestricted free agent.

Will Jones get the contract from the Avalanche, or from another team? As of right now, I’m not sure. I’m not completely sure the Avs are sure what they want to do with him either. Should the Avs give an upgrade to the $2.5 million he earned this season, on a multi-year deal? Is he worth it?

It’s a tough question. Twenty goal-scorers don’t grow on tree in today’s NHL. Doing it two years in a row now gives Jones some proven consistency in that area. If the Avs don’t put a value on that, another team will. And yet, was anyone really bowled over by the play of David Jones this year?

He’s not very physical, he hasn’t quite had the same speed after a serious knee injury a couple years ago. But he did have five game-winning goals this year. He’s always had a good shot and he is a decent defensive player.

I don’t know, I can go either way on this. I think that’s the problem with a guy like Jones. You’re kind of tantalized by what could be with him, but many times you’re left wanting. I’m not positive, either, that Jones really wants to come back. I mean, I think if he was given some great offer, he’d take it and stay.

But I think he was a bit unhappy with being moved around on different lines at times, and with his overall ice time in general at times. He seemed happiest playing on a line with Paul Stastny, but sometimes found himself on the third line playing with Jay McClement. I think Jones thinks of himself as a top-six forward who should get top-six minutes.

If the Avs let Jones go, I would hazard to bet they’ll look for a comparable free-agent forward to replace him. Historically, if the Avs let players get too close to UFA day and haven’t signed them by then, they won’t do it at all.

I’m not sure which will it will go, but my hunch is we’ve seen the last of him in Denver.

What do you think? Is Jones worth a new multi-year deal, or is it time to cut bait with him?

First off, these new mug shots of my face are creeping me out. I mean, they’re like giant sized, and so is my forehead. I’m scaring myself every time I write a blog now.

Well OK, listen, I’ve written a TON about what I think of Paul Stastny and analyzed his game to death here before, so I’m going to just keep it short and sweet here this time.

Bottom line: His numbers were OK again. But good enough for a player making his kind of money? Probably not. And yet, why should his salary determine how he is judged? Well, because that’s how it works a lot of the time in this business. You get the most money ($6.6 million a year, with two more years left on his contract) and you’re going to get the highest expectations. That’s life.

I was going to reach for C-plus, until I took a better look at Stastny’s second half, and arguably it was as good or better statistically than many well-paid guys around the league.

Then again, there were nights in the second half when he didn’t shine, including what I will label as the biggest, most important game the Avs played down the stretch, the one that, with a victory, could have gone a long way to putting them in the playoffs. It was that March 26 game in San Jose, a game between two bubble teams, where the winner would have gotten a big edge over the other for a playoff spot.

Well, San Jose won the game 5-1. Stastny’s stats: no points, -4. He was terrible in the game, and lo and behold, the Sharks made the playoffs and the Avs didn’t. It was a game in which the Avs were looking for a leader, looking for hero, and Stastny didn’t emerge as one.

In his 79 games, Stastny had one game in which he achieved three points. One question on the minds of people who watch the Avs a lot: did the big contract kill his motivation? I don’t think I buy into that much. I’ve always said I think he plays hard and works hard at practice. Maybe the speed of the game has hurt his own game a bit. He doesn’t have breakaway speed really, so it’s tough for him to get time and space with the puck much.

He salvaged a decent statistical season with a fairly productive second half. But is “decent” the bar with him now? Is that what’s become acceptable for him now?

Are his best statistical career seasons going to wind up being his first three and it’s all downhill from there, so soon? He posted 70-plus points in three of his first four years, but hasn’t been over the 57-point mark in the last two.

I doubt the Avs will trade him – though I won’t call it impossible – mostly because I don’t see the kind of salary guy another team would want to part with to get him, or who would be acceptable to the Avs to take on.

Looks like Joe Sacco has decided to move Matt Duchene to left wing.
That’s where No. 9 is skating today at practice, on a new line with Paul Stastny at center and Milan Hejduk on the right side.
The other “top line” is now Lindstrom-Galiardi-Jones.
Landeskog-O’Reilly-Winnik remains intact.

CHICAGO – Fourteen and one. That’s the Burgundy and Blue’s record in the last 15 shootouts. No. 14 in that span came tonight, in a weird and wild game at the rowdy United Center. It can’t be overstated, by the way, how much different it is in that building after all those Bill Wirtz years. Not that I want to belittle Bill Wirtz, but wow, is that organization just totally different now that his son, Rocky, is the owner.
Everything there is first class now, and the fans have totally responded. Great game-night atmosphere and they treat the media real well now too after years of indifference. That, in turn, helps treat the fans better.

Well, I would not call that an “impressive” win tonight for the Avs in the technical sense. They were outshot 38-24, made some big-time mistakes with the puck and didn’t have the puck on their sticks for long stretches. But the Avs did win, and no thanks to a brutal officiating crew that didn’t whistle a single penalty on the Blackhawks all night. But they did whistle an incredibly ticky-tack slashing penalty on Milan Hejduk with a couple seconds left in regulation that made the first two minutes of overtime a hang-on-for-dear-life time for the visitors.

So in that sense, it was impressive.

A few overall observations:
– About Matt Duchene being put on the fourth line, with Jay McClement and Cody McLeod. I didn’t like the move by Joe Sacco. Yes, I understand he wants more out of Duchene offensively, but putting him with those two guys for the whole game – and giving him only a little more than 11 minutes of playing time overall – isn’t going to make it happen. That’s just counterproductive to me, but I’m not the coach.
I talked briefly with Duchene and he clearly wasn’t in the mood to say much about the demotion.
To me, if Sacco wanted to make a big statement to Duchene, he should have just scratched him. He also moved McClement off his natural center position to play wing with Duchene, which just isn’t going to work.

There seems to be a disconnect between the way Duchene thinks he’s playing and Sacco. Duchene has said he thinks he’s played pretty well, but Sacco says “He knows he can give us more.” But playing him with fourth-liners isn’t going to get him going offensively.

– Erik Johnson recovered well after a ghastly turnover that led to Chicago’s first goal – a total giveaway to Michael Frolik – to finish a plus-1 in 22 minutes. Still, Johnson can’t be careless like that.

– Just a great game again from the Avs’ third line. Gabriel Landeskog was superb again, and that tying goal late in the third was big-time clutch. Daniel Winnik and Ryan O’Reilly made the goal possible by combining to take the puck away from Duncan Keith.

– If Matt Duchene deserves punishment for his play, when does Chuck Kobasew get his? He was a minus-2 tonight with one shot in nearly 13 minutes. He has one point on the season, with a minus-4.

– Semyon Varlamov was seminal again for the Avs. One goal against him came after Ryan O’Byrne totally kicked a rebound into his own net, another came after the brutal Johnson giveaway and another came on a late power play when nobody checked Jonathan Toews by the side of the net.

– Paul Stastny played well, as reflected on the score sheet.

– Nice to see Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita get honored with statues out in front of the United Center (pic above).

Here’s some video of Joakim Lindstrom talking about his terrific shootout game-winner.

Nobody really wants to linger much longer on the season just past, do you? Didn’t think so. So here are some abridged versions of player grades, to close out the whole mess. (And here’s a link to the full versions of each player):

Tomas Fleischmann: A – He had 21 points in the 22 games he played with the Avs. Enough said.

Erik Johnson: B-minus – Did some good things, but the real test is this coming season.

Jay McClement: D – Didn’t play well after coming from the Blues. Needs to find a role with team.

Phillipe Dupuis: C-plus – Not a lot of offense, but hustled hard and had good attitude.

Ryan Wilson: C -Too many nights, he was just kind of there and not much more. Had a couple good moments though.

TJ Galiardi: D – Just a year “Gally” will want to forget. Was hurt most of year and struggled when he did play.

Matt Hunwick: C-minus – He was brutal in his first few weeks, but I thought started to settle down toward end.

Greg Mauldin: B -Played very well at times for the Avs. Surprising when he was sent back to minors.

Ryan O’Byrne: C-plus – Started taking a lot of penalties in the second half, which hurt team.

Mark Olver: A-minus – Really played hard when given the chance and put some numbers on the board.

Kyle Cumiskey: C – Injured most of year, but he did post eight points in 18 games.

Adam Foote: C – Injured half the year. Not a great way to go out, but it was a great career.

Jonas Holos: C – Started strong, but played poorly much of the second half.

Kyle Quincey: D – Had only one point and a minus-5 in the 21 games he played before getting hurt.

David Koci: C-plus – He played well as a defenseman toward the end.

Cameron Gaunce: C – One point and a minus-3 in 11 games, but has some potential.

Peter Forsberg: B-minus – I know he didn’t get a point and was a minus-4 in his two games, but he could have had three or four points if teammates could have shot the puck!

Brian Elliott: C – That might be a generous grade, but he did have a couple of outstanding games. Yeah, some real bad ones too.

GM Sherman: C – Made some good trades early on (Fleischmann for Hannan), but jury is still out on the big one later with St. Louis, and the Blues clearly won the rest of the season based on the results.

He played more games this season (77) than he did the previous two (63). He scored a career-high in goals (27). So why doesn’t David Jones get an ‘A’ here? Call it just a feeling that, hey, while he was pretty good at times out there, you were just never quite bowled over by his play. Forty-five points in 77 games isn’t quite ‘A’ material either, now is it?

For a guy with his decent size, you’d like to see a little more physical play from him, a little more jam around the net, etc., etc. Too many times, it seems like Jones just kind of gives in to any physical play on him, and skates away. I’d like to see a few face washes from him, a few more elbows and shoves and general what-for to opponents after the whistle. The Avs have too many guys that are just, well, too easy to play against and Jones can be included in that mix. As the hockey saying goes, the Avs too often “show too much respect” out there to opponents. They’re just too nice a team. I have and always will believe that it takes a cut-throat, no-respect, whatever-it-takes persona to excel in hockey.

“What about guys like Joe Sakic?” you say. Don’t be fooled: Sakic was and is a classy human being, but he had a killer’s mentality inside about the game. He didn’t take it easy on anyone. You don’t have to be physical to be a nasty player in this game. You just have to have that no-mercy disposition toward them, but I don’t always sense that from guys like Jones and others on the team. It helps explain why they had trouble so often holding leads, etc.

All that said, the fact is Jones did score 27 goals, and I don’t care how it’s done, it’s a tough thing to do in today’s NHL. Jones managed to stay healthy most of the season, which had always been his problem before. I do think the knee injury suffered a year before took away some of his formerly blazing speed, and the Avs just have to hope another summer of conditioning will help get the knee stronger for the coming season.

Jones is a restricted free agent, and there’s no doubt he’s going to want a healthy raise over the $837,500 he made this season. That was less than Cody McLeod made, for instance. I’ll go ahead and predict something like a two-year, $4 million deal for No. 54 at some point soon.

Jones has a good, accurate shot. Problem is, he only got 153 of them in the 77 games – only a little more than two a game. Maybe if Jones fought a little harder for pucks around the net, he’d get a few more shots. If he’d done that, maybe the grade would have been an A instead.

SAN JOSE – Was going to post some video of Brian Elliott talking after the game tonight, but the stupid hotel I’m at doesn’t have wireless internet access and so I couldn’t download the video from my phone and upload them to here. Keep in mind I’m staying about three miles from the home of Apple Computer, Inc. All I can do is use the big long ethernet cord to be able to get online at all with my laptop.

So it’ll just be a word salad instead here. I thought the Avs were going to win the game tonight, but a lucky tip by Joe Thornton said otherwise and the Burgundy and Blue went meekly in the shootout to lose again. That’s 14 out of 15 now. The B&B get Edmonton at home Saturday, the same team they got waxed by at home not long ago.

Some positive things happened for the beleaguered Avs tonight though. First, Brian Elliott looked good. Real good, I thought. I liked how fundamentally sound he looked. He doesn’t flop all over the place like Peter Budaj does, and was good and square to the puck.

Second, Erik Johnson played a terrific game. Let’s not just give the Blues the Charlie Sheen “Winning!” verdict to the Blues over that trade just yet. He scored the Avs’ only goal, and was good all over the ice. He’s going to be a solid player for the Blue for a long time. Yes, I still don’t like the fact that Kevin Shattenkirk was given up as part of the deal to get him. But Shattenkirk is never going to be the defensive player Johnson already is. That much I can feel safe in saying. I saw enough of Shatty to know his defensive liabilities.

Third, Matt Hunwick is looking like a real player finally. He was good tonight, and has been good for a few games now. He’s finally playing under control, just making simple plays and using his speed effectively.

The bad stuff: the offense looks terrible still. The Avs just don’t carry the play anymore offensively. It’s a small, easy to play against forward group right now for the Avs, and yes, the loss of Chris Stewart has something to do with that.

They can’t get to the front of the net, they can’t get easy goals and they almost never have long cycling shifts in the offensive end. Ryan Stoa is a nice kid, but he keeps playing a soft game up front for a guy with his size. David Jones is scoring some goals, but he doesn’t have that extra gear anymore because of that knee injury. He doesn’t have that dangerous speed anymore, though they usually say it takes a year or more to get the speed back after ACL surgery.

It’ll be interesting to see what the Avs do with the goaltending over the summer. I liked what I saw from Elliott tonight, but do I want to bank my future on him? Not quite yet, no. Calvin Pickard is coming through the pipeline in junior, but it’s still going to be a couple years at least.

Will they make a big run at Tomas Vokoun this summer? Maybe. But a lot of teams will probably give him a good offer. Why would he pick Colorado over other better teams?

LOS ANGELES – Every added loss to the Avalanche’s season, the better their draft position is going to be this June. Really, that’s all there is to look forward to before next season starts. It’s 2009 all over again.

Whether the Avs can pluck another Matt Duchene, we’ll see. All I know is I have to start calling a lot of amateur scouts soon, to get a better handle on the upcoming draft. It’s supposed to be a good draft (they always say that though), and the more the Avs keep losing, the better player they’re likely to get.

So today was a win then, right?

About the game today: just another thoroughly awful start to one, just a robotic, lifeless team through 40 minutes. No passion, no spirit, no toughness, no nothin’. The Kings relaxed at the end and the Avs nearly pulled out a tie game, but no.

The Avs just took one stupid penalty after another, though I do think they also were the victim of some bad calls early on. The Kings got two 5-on-3s and the Avs killed them both – and still lost. That almost never happens. But to this team right now, it does. Read more…

Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.

Chambers covers college and professional hockey for The Denver Post. He has written for the Post since 1994, after dumping his first 9-to-5 office job a couple years out of college. He primarily follows the University of Denver hockey team and helps cover the Avalanche.